2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition

[Celtic Fan Forever]

... esp. given that he was sharing the court with FVV, OG and Bogut, making it by far one of the weaker bench offenses.

This is another assumption I've seen multiple times.  Is there any indication that CFF intends to role out his bench as a unit?  Is any GM in this league doing that?

I think it's a mistake to consider benches like that.  I assume that they're all being blended in with the starters.

I think 3-4 bench guys at a time is a reasonable assumption.

My team would never have 4 bench guys in. Particularly because my top 4 starters were getting 35, 35, 34, and 37 minutes. The staggering would have allowed no ?all bench? or mostly bench unit.

[Roy H.]

... esp. given that he was sharing the court with FVV, OG and Bogut, making it by far one of the weaker bench offenses.

This is another assumption I've seen multiple times.  Is there any indication that CFF intends to role out his bench as a unit?  Is any GM in this league doing that?

I think it's a mistake to consider benches like that.  I assume that they're all being blended in with the starters.

I think 3-4 bench guys at a time is a reasonable assumption.

My team would never have 4 bench guys in. Particularly because my top 4 starters were getting 35, 35, 34, and 37 minutes. The staggering would have allowed no ?all bench? or mostly bench unit.

Yeah, unless the coach is Doc Rivers, going with 4+ bench players just generally isn't done.

Think of Manu's and Iggy's best moments off the bench.  They're playing alongside Duncan and Parker and Curry and Thompson and Draymond.

[snively]

I get 6th men lingering with the starters but multiple bench guys being in at once is absolutely the norm.

[Roy H.]

I get 6th men lingering with the starters but multiple bench guys being in at once is absolutely the norm.

Multiple isn't the same as four or five, though. 

For instance, look at real basketball.  8 of the 9 most used lineups included Sam Hauser with 2+ starters in the game.  They're playing alongside other one included Tatum and Horford, with no data available regarding whether Horford was a starter that game.

[snively]

I get 6th men lingering with the starters but multiple bench guys being in at once is absolutely the norm.

Multiple isn't the same as four or five, though.

I said 3-4. Which I don't see as controversial.  1 or 2 Starters lingering at all times but 3-4 bench guys sharing the court for about 6 minutes a half.

Typically teams want to maximize the time their Starters have together with the 6th man coming in first and replacing the weakest starter in crunch time.

[Who]

Not that relevant to this completed draft but RealGM forum has a thread on Chris Bosh saying his time in Toronto is under-rated. I thought this quick summation of Bosh was good.

He was decent. High efficiency, but less offensive impact than you'd think because he was a slow iso player who wasn't much of a playmaker. Decent rebounder but nothing special. Solid defender. Definitely not a tier-1 player.

Bosh was never made to be a #1 scoring option. He had to iso from 14-17 feet, take about 5-7 seconds measuring up the defender, throwing jab steps, head fakes, then he'd drive. He'd do well once he made his move.

Bosh had an elite first step that most bigs couldn't handle. You needed quicker smaller forwards to contain it. So when they played Chicago, Joakim Noah (quick center) couldn't defend Bosh but Taj Gibson could. When they played Orlando, Dwight Howard (uber-athletic center) couldn't defend Bosh but Rashard Lewis could. You needed that footspeed to contain Bosh.

So Bosh got to the rim and finished well. He also got to the FT line at a high clip with his first step able to draw contact on his drives. However, all that time where he was measuring up the defender the whole Raptors offense would stagnate. It is hard to keep off ball player movement going when the ball sticks for 5-7 seconds. I always thought that was the key marker for Carmelo Anthony's efficiency as well. Not his FG%. How quick his decisions / moves off the catch were. When he made quick decisions, he teammates could play well. When he made slow decisions, even he scored well that night, it was hard for his teammates to find their games.

Anyway, it doesn't matter much for this fantasy league since Bosh is the 5th option in the starting lineup. Just more general discussion about Bosh's game.